Hot Water
by Bossgodora
Summary: After being forced to join a team a Monferno must battle alongside a Simipour and an Espeon in order to one day face the Elite Four. However the Monferno is certain to be sidetracked on the to become champion...


"Come on! Please, you'll see that it's really a lot of fun!" A Simipour begged as she had her arms wrapped tightly around a Monferno; Her head, to his annoyance, laid up against his shoulder.

The Monferno removed the Simipour's arms from around his torso and replied, "No thanks."

The Simipour quickly grew upset after being rejected. Again. She sat on the damp ground, crossed her legs and began pouting. The Monferno had managed to resist her feminine charm once again, which was always a huge blow to her.

Although, the Monferno's resistance was to be expected, he had always been able to push the Simipour away regardless of whatever seductive plan she devised. Which leads to why the Monferno doesn't return her affection, ever since he could remember he has always trained to become the strongest pokémon in all of Unova.

The Monferno rose to his feet and while beginning to make his way to another part of the forest where _she_ wasn't he told the Simipour. "I'm out of here."

What was she to do? The Monferno was leaving; she had to do something to make him stay with her but how? After some quick thinking a mischievous grin appeared on her face, as she had hatched another plan.

"If you're planning to become the strongest pokémon by yourself, then how will you face the Elite Four?" She asked.

For Arceus's sake, not this Elite Four again, on his journey the Monferno has faced many pokémon (wild and paired with trainers) in combat and nearly _every_ time they had mentioned the Elite Four, as if he couldn't beat them. No matter, during his training the Monferno had traveled around the Unova loop (Routes 5-16) a number of times in order to accomplish his goal. However in order to even challenge the Elite Four he would need to do the unthinkable, obtain a trainer, and if there's anything that he loathed more it would be just the mere thought of it. Even if he was able to wrap his mind around the idea, he would need to figure how to find one that would be most suitable to him.

The Monferno shifted his attention to the trees; Pinwheel Forest was one of the _few_ places in all of Unova where he could truly let his guard down and relax. He could never understand why though, he just assumed that he wouldn't be attacked in a place with such natural beauty. That was what the Monferno believed until he first met the Simipour anyway…

Suddenly rustling noises began to fill the cool forest air, the Simipour rose to her feet prepared for battle while the Monferno ignored the possibly impending danger, continuing to observe the treetops. An Espeon emerged from the nearby by bushes.

"There you are Angela; I've been looking all over for you."

The Monferno let out a heavy sigh, he knew that the Espeon shared the same trainer as the Simipour; as a matter of fact they were best friends. The Espeon's body tensed up the moment she noticed the Monferno.

"Conner." She tried getting on his good side by looking at him with her violet eyes and an anxious smile.

"Hikari." Conner shot back with a hateful glare that intimidated the Espeon into shifting her attention back onto her Simipour friend.

"So what have you been up to Angela?" Hikari asked while slowly waving her tail back and forth, as if she already didn't know.

"Oh you know, just trying to convince my darling to join us, but he still needs a little persuasion."

Damn it, there's that word again. Conner hated having Angela call him that because he was _not_ her darling, in fact he didn't think there was nothing darling about him. Which questions why the Simipour was so interested in the Monferno in the first place, it was completely weird if not against the way of nature for fire and water types to be together so why does she try so hard to gain his affection?

"If you really want me to join you could try fighting me again." Both Angela and Hikari winced at Conner's suggestion, in the past they've tried to capture the Monferno by force but with his rigorous training he was able to defeat them both with ease, despite both their type advantages.

"No way." The pink fox responded by lowering her ears and with a sad expression on her face as well.

"I've had enough of your games for today Simipour." Conner announced, while beginning to leave the area.

Games? Of course! Angela knew that she and Hikari wouldn't stand a chance at beating Conner in a battle but what a game? Along with fighting, games were in his list of top five of things to do.

"I'm listening." The Monferno replied and taking the bait the instant it was laid out.

"Follow me." Angela jumped onto a tree branch and began jumping onto branches that were positioned higher ascending into greater heights while Conner followed, until they reached the point where the Espeon looked like a pink speck from where they stood,

"Here's what we're going to do." She began to explain the game as she plucked a leaf from a nearby branch.

"All you have to do is catch this leaf and get to the ground with it in your hand." _Sounded easy enough_ the Monferno thought to himself but of course there would be a catch.

"Not so fast, if I win you have to promise to become a pokémon on my trainer's team."

"And if I win?"

"I'll stop following you around."

Conner laughed on the inside, he had full confidence in his abilities but he also needed to consider the consequence of losing this bet. Angela had always been chasing after him since both their pre-evolved stages. He had always beaten her however now that he thought about all those previous challenges were straight forward battles that tested strength, this one incorporated ingenuity, quick thinking and resourcefulness. He didn't know where they both stood on the grounds of mental aspects; maybe she already came up with a plan to win, this _is_ the first time she ever challenged him to anything else but a battle…

After considering the possibilities of how the challenge would play out he nodded in agreement, continuing on with the game. Angela held out her arm over the ledge with the leaf in hand.

"We'll start after I drop the leaf."

The countdown began as the Monferno kept his eyes on the leaf, that's when he noticed the leaf in the Angela's hand, was frozen in a small block of ice.

"GO!"

…

Fast-forwarding a few hours later Conner found himself eating a bowl of soup around a campfire with Angela, Hikari and his new trainer.

"I can't believe she pulled a trick like that." Conner muttered under his breath.

Angela had suspected that Conner would notice that she had frozen the leaf, after starting he took off without noticing that she dropped just a regular ice cube. Which allowed to quickly make her way down without being spotted or in laymen's terms she cheated. Although he hated to admit it he had definitely underestimated her skills.

"So… is this everyone?" Conner asked Hikari.

"Huh? Oh yeah, until you joined it was just me and Angela but we already know how strong you are so getting to the gym badges should be a snap." The Espeon responded.

Great. _Join our team, Conner, having a trainer is fun! _Friggin Bouffalant crap. On a team with only three pokémon, he was beginning to wonder if facing the Elite Four would even be possible now.

_Look at the positives_ the Monferno thought; at least he wouldn't be ambushed in his sleep. On his travels around Unova, Conner made a few 'friends', one that stood above all the rest was a Zoroark named X. Specifically it was her illusions that made so formidable (That's a story for another day.) but as long as he has a trainer he shouldn't be running into her again.

After noticing that he hadn't touched his food in over five minutes, Angela got up and sat down right next to Conner.

"What do you want?" He said solemn expression on his face.

"Well, I already have you so…" The flame on Conner's tail grew larger as his temper flared.

"Relax, I'm just kidding. Look, I know its tough having to adjust to a human and all but you'll see it's not so bad." She replied while swirling the soup in her bowl with a spoon.

Then without warning she stuffed a spoonful in the Monferno's mouth. The soup had a sweet and spicy flavor to it, probably from the Cheri and Pecha berries that were growing around the forest.

"Who knows? Maybe you'll find a thing or two you might like about having a trainer." The Simipour said with a smile on her face as she got up to get refill her bowl.

_Damn__**. **_Only the first day with her and she was already treating him like her favorite toy. However he hadn't noticed it before but she seemed different, from the incident just now she did look a bit lovelier than normal. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad-

"All right guys time for bed!"

With that Hikari, Angela (and Conner) helped put away the dishes and get ready to sleep for the night. After the cleanup it was time to everyone to get some rest for tomorrow. While the trainer slept in a sleeping bag, Hikari and Angela slept on the forest grass. Conner, who was watching Angela to make sure she didn't try anything, sat atop a tree branch. His eyes watched her like a Taillow watching a Wurmple that was about to be its next meal, not in the sense that he wanted her but you get the idea. As time passed by the Monferno grew more tired with each passing minute until finally he fell asleep…


End file.
